The assignee of the present invention manufactures and deploys spacecraft for, inter alia, communications and broadcast services. Spacecraft often include various deployable structures, e.g., equipment booms, solar arrays, antenna reflectors, antenna masts, etc. Such structures may, for example, often be folded flat against a side of the spacecraft during launch and may then subsequently be deployed using, for example, hinged connections when the spacecraft is on-orbit.
Because of the large distances involved, small misalignments in such a hinge may have significant repercussions in overall system performance. For example, a 0.1 degree misalignment in an antenna reflector for a satellite at an altitude of 37,000 km may cause the resulting terrestrial antenna illumination area to shift by nearly 65 km.
There is thus a need for hinged interfaces for use in satellites that have anti-compliance or anti-gapping capabilities when in the hinge-closed state.